Exploring one of life's most valuable gifts
With these days of late November characterized by fewer hours of daylight, I look forward each year to our Thanksgiving celebrations as a way to brighten up the end of the month. The quality time shared with family and friends in celebration of gratitude feels like the perfect antidote to the chilling temperatures and darker... Continue Reading →
Fall is a magical season of vibrant colors, crisp air, and plenty of opportunities to create lasting memories with friends. As much as I love fall, between the back-to-school madness and a shift into high gear at work when summer ends, Labor Day can sometimes feel like stepping on a gas pedal that won't let... Continue Reading →
May is always a big month for celebrating milestones, such as college graduations and the unofficial start of summer. Now, it also will be the anniversary month for me and my new husband, Mark! Last weekend, Mark and I got married in a small ceremony witnessed by our families and a few dear friends. Keeping... Continue Reading →
Global Volunteer Month officially ends this week with the end of April, but making time for volunteering is important any time of year. It is also a great way to establish connections and make new friends. Nonprofit organizations often work with limited resources, so giving your time or talents can make a real impact. At... Continue Reading →
Zoom calls, group chats and emails are hugely helpful when you are missing your friends in faraway places. They certainly provide faster and more complete forms of staying in touch than what we had in the old days, when audio calls or snail mail were our only methods of communication with geographically dispersed friends. We’ve... Continue Reading →
Moving to a new city is never easy, especially when it involves long distance. Leaving behind friends and familiar surroundings can trigger heavy feelings of loss, and navigating the magnitude of change involved with a relocation can be difficult for anyone. Yet, I have watched one of my longtime friends gracefully manage big moves multiple... Continue Reading →
While November signals the start of the holiday season for most people, here at Language of Friendship, we tend to think of November as birthday season. Sara shared last year that our LOF editorial team, and even her dog Winnie, all have birthdays within the same week! And despite how busy life gets, birthdays provide... Continue Reading →
When Sara and I launched this blog in early 2021, pandemic-disrupted friendships and everyday connections fueled our desire to write about the importance of friendship. Nearly three years later, life has mostly returned to ‘normal.’ While normal enables us to gather in person and hop on airplanes to celebrate milestones, normal can also be very... Continue Reading →
Last summer we wrote about a return to post-Covid travel and how pent-up demand led to new highs in travel bookings around the globe. It also led to spikes in travel costs, a big reason why my family decided to trade in our annual week on Cape Cod for a long weekend near the Blue... Continue Reading →
Lately I’ve been experiencing an emotion I was introduced to early last year when I read about it in famed vulnerability researcher Brene Brown’s helpful book, Atlas of the Heart, which Julia and I both wrote about in separate posts. The emotion is called Freudenfreude, and it’s a mouthful, but really it’s just the feeling... Continue Reading →
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